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Oblivionite
Oblivionites After Xan’s Deluge, the shakeups within the Autocracy innumerable dead, a displaced population, and little working infrastructure. By the end of the reclamation efforts on the peninsula proper, only the varied armies still roaming the lands had any semblance of organization. To prevent the seemingly inevitable factional wars, Autocrat Tavian made a decision that haunted him for the rest of his days. In order to preserve his rule, he sent many of the victorious armies out past Dagger’s Point, damning those he considered heroes to a life of further conflict. Despite House Delacroix of the north being essentially in charge of both the north and Kreisgrad by virtue of their relative strength, Tavian wished to simply maintain what the Autocratic States still had. The Deluge had many heroic groups, some of the most celebrated were the Band of Five. Without their (mostly accidental) subterfuge, the combined armies of the ASH most likely would’ve never won the battle of Pleasant Fields, the true turning point of the war. Their infiltration was not without difficult decisions of their own. One of the Band of Five had to take more upon his shoulders than the rest. Masquerading as the bodyguard of the Band, every message that was intercepted by Xan’s army led to retribution against the humans enslaved by the enemy. To allay suspicion, the Band had to execute the same messengers they had sent out to maintain their cover. The bodyguard took this responsibility upon himself and the man’s wit and jovial nature sapped away with every prisoner he brought to the executioner’s block. After Pleasant Fields, the bodyguard stayed with his four friends as a cadaverous shadow of his former self. While his talent with an axe lent power to the group, he no longer spoke unless addressed and only enough to answer. Eventually, when Tavian directed the newly mobilized ASH outwards, the bodyguard left his group to join what would become the Frontier Legions. The tenth legion immediately marched off into the frontiers. Unknowingly, their path took them straight into the moving perversity known as the ‘spirit walk’. The tenth legion was made up of more militia than any other of the Frontier Legions. Deemed the highest risk of revolt by Kreisgrad, their march led them through the borders of Khuland, unknown at the time by the ASH except for occasional human prisoners taken during the Deluge. Tentatively, the exiles reached out to the veritable circus of depravity and they were granted meetings and invited to the celebrations outside the massive caravans. Some joined while others stayed behind, only leaving for their camp as darkness set in. As night fell, the true madness of Khuland exposed itself away from the prying eyes of the main force of the tenth legion. The bodyguard observed as his erstwhile allies slumbered or kept watch. He witnessed the cannibalistic orgies that swept through the people of Khuland. Throughout the night, he was frozen by the first fear he had felt in a long time by the casual atrocities committed by the Khulanders. Hiding in a caravan, he saw the bizarre apparitions shifting and roiling, seeming to never move even as they changed locations. Finally, he broke for his camp as the morning set in. He had to prove to more of his compatriots that the welcoming foreigners were not all they seemed. The week ended and both the Khulanders and tenth legion broke camp, the hastily appointed superiors refusing to believe the wild reports from the men. Whether they did not listen due to a desire to prevent panic, in order to deceive the Khulanders, or cowardice is not known. Disappearances were ignored as desertion. As they began to leave and the officers crowded around their pitifully incomplete maps, the bodyguard led all those who followed him to see the Khulanders vile rituals into the officer’s quarters. Before explanations could be demanded, the bodyguard and his cadre chopped them to pieces. After burying them beneath the tent, the bodyguard and his cohort began rallying the confused legion. His more charismatic followers exclaimed the Khulanders made away with their commanders. In days, the tenth gathered themselves for war, sending scouts to find their new adversaries. To honor their new leader, the bodyguard became known simply as the Guardian. Decimation of Khuland For years, the borders of Khuland came under siege by the invigorated forces of the tenth legion. After hunting down the Spirit Walk and cutting them off by utilizing subterfuge coached by the Guardian himself and fast Valanite cavalry, all of the tenth encircled the degenerate Khulanders. Incorporating tribes that had been subjugated by Khuland, and a few Broodmothers who had warned the ancestors of the humans of Khu valley before escaping their retaliation. The Guardian’s force ballooned in size. Savage tribals, both Shekami and human, skilled charioteers of the natives, Duralian conscripts, Valanite light cavalry and skirmishers, Hemosan knights and men at arms, along with howdahs atop monolith lizards full of men of the former nation known as the Patronage rallied to this new power in the region. The tenth Legion crushed the celebrants decisively in the daylong battle of Gynt. Calling for aid to end Khuland saw the beginnings of two more legions rushed across the continent. A mostly ignorant Autocracy was eager to rid themselves of more organized veterans. Three years of war and the Guardian’s army made it to Khu valley. His now massive force fought through the slopes of Solitary Peak and into the caverns that it hid. Driving into Khu valley was another issue entirely. The Guardian himself fought the Distorted King, ruler of Khuland. A blow shattering the Guardian’s axe upon the monstrous king sent the remainders of Khuland running for the mountains, no one had previously been able to touch the once-human ruler. Upon seeing defeat, the King asked, “In whose name do you attempt to send me away from my kingdom?” The emaciated Guardian stared at the once human and simply said, “Oblivion” before being struck down by the abomination After the Deluge, witnessing the Spirit Walk, and yet another protracted war, the Guardian had shunned the gods (or was shunned) by the three. The overstretched forces besieging Khu valley retreated the next day, leaving a short-lived vigil over the blasphemous ruins in Khu valley. Adherents of Oblivion Relying on defectors from other legions, persecuted human tribes, and finally the beginnings of two other armies who were sent before full muster by the ASH, the Oblivionites are an extremely diverse group. Their capital, Guardian’s Rest, is the final resting place of their founder. Taking their name from the last word spoken by the Guardian, their lands are somewhat anarchistic, a confederation of tribes, armies, and nations united only in opposition to what they see as either the judgment of the gods or proof they are not real. The Technocracy generally stays genial with the strange peoples to their north while the ASH tend to keep a policy of staying aloof, though many allege that secretive agencies and societies within the Autocracy use them for their own ends. The 9th Legion is embroiled in constant skirmishes to the west, poor organization and terrible travel keep the 9th from being much of a threat. With them, the 8th also skirmish occasionally but are mostly focused on Khuland and the TC. The Obilvionites keep a special hatred for Khuland to their south, much of their efforts involve attempting to check their resurgence. They have recently lost a fair amount to Khuland after parts of the Shallow Sea froze over, allowing for an invasion without having to rely on the barges and their strange operators to cross the flooded lowlands. Relations with the Padishah are uncommonly friendly due to their geographical separation, despite distance between the two military aid is traded frequently when possible. To an outsider, they seem to be a strange mix of religious fanatics and militant atheists held together by either a need to spread a militant creed of a thousand different end times, seeing one another as a means to accomplish these objectives. Religious conflicts are rare. The schisms in this ‘society’ focus solely on how they believe the world will end. Their methods are equally bizarre, pursuing conflicts with Frontier Legions and Khuland simultaneously. They trade and war with every faction that surrounds them, most fanatically guarding the mysterious tomb lands to their east. They control nexus points related to the ruins in Khu valley but closer to a metaphorical window rather than a door. To mimic their founder, they are brought to gaze into these points in order to instill the mindset needed to truly be an Oblivionite. Windows offer vision both in and out. Though they revere the three gods of the Autocracy, religious Oblivionites instead search for a single deity which they claim is the progenitor of the three.